Renderfarm OS 2005-05-13 - By Alan Jones
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Nice :-) thanks for the info.
Cheers,
Alan.
On 5/13/05, Andy Jones <andy@(protected)> wrote:
> Partimage actually has that functionality built in. You can choose no
> compression, gz or bz2. I usually just use gz.
>
> -Andy
>
> Alan Jones wrote:
>
> >You could also pipe this into tar and .tgz it on the fly if you really
> >want to save space (at the cost of speed of course).
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >Alan.
> >
> >On 5/13/05, Andy Jones <andy@(protected)> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Yeah, you get much smaller images this way without having to zero out
> >>all the empty blocks.
> >>
> >>-Andy
> >>
> >>Gene Crucean wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>Cool... I thought you were going the "dd" route, but then you threw a
> >>>partimaged curve ball. :)
> >>>
> >>>Thanks for that little tut Andy.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>On 5/10/05, Andy Jones <andy@(protected)> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>Hi Jordi,
> >>>>
> >>>>Our farm is Windows 2000 on BatchServe.
> >>>>
> >>>>That said, I'd go Linux. No question. If what you're saying about
> >>>>being comfortable with batch rendering is true, you can probably get
> >>>>away with that for now if you have to, and with Linux, it's a lot easier
> >>>>to automate. Don't install Windows for the purpose of using
> >>>>BatchServe. Even if BatchServe were great render queueing software,
> >>>>you'd still be better off on Linux. The only reason I can think of not
> >>>>to use Linux is if you absolutely need some sort of shader that you only
> >>>>have compiled on Windows and you don't have access to the source. For
> >>>>free open source render management, check out DrQueue. I don't know of
> >>>>anyone who has used it yet. I'm still hoping someone will give it a try
> >>>>and tell me about it (anyone?). If you're on a production deadline and
> >>>>don't have time to experiment, maybe go with one of the other options --
> >>>>Royal Render, Rush, etc.
> >>>>
> >>>>For distributions, I can't speak from personal experience with XSI on
> >>>>Linux, but Gentoo is likely to give you the fastest possible system.
> >>>>Since you're installing on 10 machines, maybe it's worth the
> >>>>semi-fictional "extra trouble." Just make sure there aren't any
> >>>>proprietary drivers you need that will only install on particular distros.
> >>>>
> >>>>If you do choose to go with windows, google "psexec". It's a program
> >>>>that runs applications remotely, and can make your life easier if you're
> >>>>comfortable putting together some scripts.
> >>>>
> >>>>Here's something else that might be useful for you (one of many ways to
> >>>>do this):
> >>>>
> >>>>Procedure for imaging hard disk partitions:
> >>>>Install software on one system.
> >>>>Download and burn 2 Knoppix Live CDs.
> >>>>Boot the machine you installed with Knoppix (call this "source")
> >>>>Boot another machine with Knoppix (call this "server")
> >>>>
> >>>>On server:
> >>>> Become root
> >>>> > su
> >>>> Create a password for the user "partimag"
> >>>> > passwd partimag
> >>>> Partition the hard disk if necessary, with a Linux partition.
> >>>> > cfdisk /dev/sda
> >>>> Create a filesystem:
> >>>> > mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sda1
> >>>> Create a mount-point:
> >>>> > mkdir /mnt/sda1
> >>>> Mount the filesystem:
> >>>> > mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
> >>>> Run the following:
> >>>> > partimaged --daemon --port 4025 --dest /mnt/sda1
> >>>>
> >>>> You should now have a disk image server running on server. Make
> >>>>sure you know the ipaddress of server (ifconfig eth0).
> >>>>
> >>>>On source:
> >>>> Become root
> >>>> > su
> >>>> Run imaging program
> >>>> > partimage
> >>>> Choose the partition you want to image, give it a filename, select
> >>>>"Save partition into a new image file", enable "Connect to server",
> >>>>input the IP address of server, hit next.
> >>>> Log in as user=partimag, password=<whatever password you chose>
> >>>> Follow the rest of the instructions. If you get confused, man
> >>>>partimage.
> >>>>
> >>>>Once you have an image file on the server, shutdown the source, and use
> >>>>that cd to boot another computer (destination).
> >>>>
> >>>>On destination:
> >>>> Become root
> >>>> > su
> >>>> Run cfdisk and partition your hard drive.
> >>>> > cfdisk /dev/sda1
> >>>> Run the imaging program
> >>>> > partimage
> >>>> Do the same thing you did above, but choose "restore partition from
> >>>>an image file". Be sure to enter the same filename you used above.
> >>>> Log in as before.
> >>>> Once the partition is imaged, you should also restore the MBR.
> >>>>Follow the same options as before, but choose "restore an mbr from the
> >>>>imagefile".
> >>>>
> >>>>Hopefully I got all this right, and it's useful... Note, if you're
> >>>>copying NTFS partitions, Linux's NTFS support is experimental, so don't
> >>>>use this for transferring mission-critical data. Also, note that you
> >>>>can restore partitions to multiple machines at the same time. And for
> >>>>faster transfers, disable the SSL encryption option.
> >>>>
> >>>>-Andy
> >>>>
> >>>>Jordi Bares wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>>we are using Fedora Core 2 for our renderfarm and workstations and works
> >>>>>really well.. some of the stats show the up and running time and tends
> >>>>>to be many many days without any performance degratation nor crashes.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>jb
> >>>>>
> >>>>>On Tue, 2005-05-10 at 09:41, tony@(protected) wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>>Hi all,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>I'm about to take delivery of a mini renderfarm (10 dual cpu ibms in a
small
> >>>>>>rack enclosure), but was wondering what the best OS for it should be. I
'm
> >>>>>>currently using xsi on winxp, so should I stick with that? How about
linux? And
> >>>>>>is there a particular flavour of linux i should use? I have limited
unix skills,
> >>>>>>but am sure i'm up to setting up a linux server.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Also, I don't have batchserve. Up until now i've simply been using
xsibatch
> >>>>>>command line rendering to set off distributed rendering. I'm
comfortable with
> >>>>>>it and find it adequate for my needs, but should I consider investing in
> >>>>>>batchserve or some sort of render management software now that i have
this
> >>>>>>mini-farm.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>cheers
> >>>>>>Tony.
> >>>>>>
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